Current Events Lesson Plan: October 27-November 2, 2016
Current Event: Mount Rushmore Turns 75
October 31, 2016, was the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Carved on a granite cliff in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the giant-sized presidential faces on Mount Rushmore have symbolized American creativity and history, as well as the nation’s variety of natural beauty, since the memorial opened in 1941. Mount Rushmore National Memorial shows the faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The heads are 60 feet (18 meters) high. The height of the heads is to the scale of a human being 465 feet (142 meters) tall. American sculptor Gutzon Borglum designed the memorial and supervised most of its work. Work on the memorial began in 1927 and continued, with interruptions, for over 14 years. Borglum died in 1941, before the memorial was completed, and his son Lincoln finished the work. The memorial is part of the National Park System. More than 2 million people visit Mount Rushmore every year.
Objective:
The National Park System consists of hundreds of areas in the United States that have been set aside for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. These areas, called parklands, are natural wonderlands, famous historic places, or sites for many kinds of outdoor recreation. They include national parks, monuments, battlefields, lakeshores, rivers, and historic buildings. The United States government established the first national park in the world, Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. The National Park System developed with the creation of additional parklands. Today, the District of Columbia and every state except Delaware have at least one national parkland, and the system consists of about 400 areas and totals more than 84 million acres (34 million hectares). The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore Mount Rushmore and other national park system areas.
Words to know:
- Abraham Lincoln
- Black Hills
- George Washington
- Gutzon Borglum
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial
- National Park System
- South Dakota
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Thomas Jefferson
Discussion Topics:
1. Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed in 1941. Ask your students to name some people who were alive in 1941 and are still alive today. (Students might name Hank Aaron, Kofi Annan, Pope Benedict XVI, Warren Buffett, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Elizabeth II, Pope Francis, Morgan Freeman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Glenn, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham, Willie Mays, Toni Morrison, Jack Nicklaus, Sandra Day O’Connor, Colin Powell, Bernie Sanders, Desmond Tutu, Betty White.)
2. Ask your students to name some famous national parks around the world. (Students might say Banff National Park, Death Valley National Park, Denali National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Galapagos National Park, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Iguaçu National Park, Jasper National Park, Kilimanjaro National Park, Komodo National Park, Kruger National Park, Serengeti National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park.)
3. Ask your students, “If you were to choose the four greatest people from your country, who would you choose and why?”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to make a timeline showing the history of the National Park System. (Students may wish to use World Book’s “National Park System” article and the articles of individual park system areas for help.)